My dear friend Susan asked if I would build her a cabinet - shelving for her kitchen. I immediately said “no” and let her know it wasn’t cool of her to ask. Upon reflection I changed my mind and decided I would be happy to help her out. It was a specific spot in her kitchen that she measured out for me and I built the cabinet based on her description and location.
The shelving was built using 3/4 inch pine plywood and 1x2 pine trim. It’s kind of odd, but I have a lot more experience using hardwood and making panels, then I do using plywood. This project allowed me to get into plywood and practice making a painted finish product. Sue asked for an antique yellow color and I found that General finished Milk Paint (combined two cans of Harvest Yellow and one can of Linen) works great. One of the key design items was a recessed shelf to display some pretty mugs she had received as a gift. The trim worked out well, I wanted to practice making it from a single piece of 1x2. All of the shelves use dado’s to make for a strong, tight fit.
Painting furniture at a professional level is certainly an impressive skill… one that I don’t have :P For this project I decided to paint it unassembled so I could use a roller and get a smooth, even finish. I wasn’t sure how it would work out in terms of then assembling and touching up blemishes from the process. It proved to work well and I would do this process again on a similar build.
I’m really pleased with the color. I moved outside to do second and third coats. I couldn’t shake this eerie feeling that someone was watching me while I painted. Once dry I assembled the pieces and it was a solid fit.
